Executive Summary of Results

The modular approach to the health sciences education Web development program is on-going. To date, the neuroscience module has been designed and implemented to assist students in reviewing the neurosciences. The basic template will be applied, with modifications, to the other health science modules over the next year. Twenty-seven Faculty and Staff at the IU School of Dentistry signed up for one or more workshops offered over a two-week period in June 2000. Most Dental School Teaching Faculty have since developed Web pages for their own teaching needs and have achieved a level of comfort with Web-based technology to allow further development to compliment their didactic courses.

Need for the Project

The explosion of information in biological sciences, especially the health-related sciences, has placed increasing demands on teaching and learning. As a result, the teaching paradigm across the nation is slowly shifting from the traditional lecture-based curriculum to a problem-based or hands-on science curriculum. The challenge now facing educators is not one of merely presenting factual information, an information-base that is increasing and changing rapidly, but to assist the student in developing approaches to understanding and managing this information to assist in their life-long learning.

Use of Technology

Students of the health sciences traditionally use multiple texts to learn the anatomy, physiology, pathology and therapeutic approaches to a body system. The use of Web and CD-ROM technologies to compliment the traditional didactic material will allow students to appreciate the integration of structure-function and pathology-therapy. The health science modules developed under this grant will allow multiple features to be associated with important text (e.g., audio for pronunciation) or images (e.g., not just hyperlinked to a static image, but an image with relevant hot-spots to emphasize textual references).

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

• What student learning outcomes were expected?

To integrate structure with function
To predict useful therapies for a given clinical pathology condition
To extrapolate from the material presented in the module to clinical situation

• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?

Active learning is achieved through a series of case presentations interspersed in the text on a given Web page. At the end of a section, the student is presented with a case of growing complexity to guide them through a rational decision-making process to arrive at a diagnosis of the condition or viable treatment for the condition.

Linked to the Web site is a quiz function that allows students to take a higher-stakes "quiz" (no grade given in this introductory phase of development) and receive feedback on their approach to the problem.

The emphasis in these modules is on learning the relative health sciences, not becoming a technology guru. Thus, simplicity in design to make the modules easily accessible to even the novice computer user is a guiding principle. The web pages themselves include text with either embedded images or links to images for the visual learners.

Several exercises in each module will suggest students review them in groups to gain an understanding that not everyone agrees with the relevance of all the information in a given clinical case. These exercises will build collaboration among students as they learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other and who to turn to when questions arise in their courses.

• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)

The primary resources used for the development of this modular approach to the health sciences falls into two categories. First, the Center for Teaching and Learning at IUPUI, has provided me with many opportunities to explore different computer and Web-based technologies as well as interact with other faculty that freely share their successes and disappointments in computer based instructional design. This background gave me the confidence to charge ahead with my plans.

Secondly, the IU School of Dentistry has been instrumental in supporting my computing needs on a daily basis. Whether a hardware, software or internet issue, they have provided the needed resources to assist me in my development.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

• Fostered depth of learning

The modules created under this grant will compliment the one-hour lecture paradigm currently employed in most health science curricula. With only a one-hour lecture on the organization of the brain, it is hard for students to learn not only the important structures but the important function they subserve. From previous course evaluations, it is apparent Dental students find it challenging to sit down and read a neuroanatomy text to compliment the lecture. Thus, if the students study anything, they focus on the scant lecture notes. The modules under development will allow students to quickly link the important text with relevant images or Web pages.

• Supported efforts to improve retention

Retention improves when relevant meaning or when multi-sensory input is associated with the information to be retained. While several efforts are being made to develop engaging, real-time neurophysiologic experiments, the majority of information retention is engineered through visual images and clinical scenarios that give life to the rather mundane nomenclature used in the health sciences.

• Fostered the learning of large numbers of students

Currently the modules are being prepared for the Dental School DDS program. The first year class consists of 100 students. Future module editions will be modified for other health professions including nursing, dental hygiene and physical and occupational therapy. The last tier of development will be college and secondary school populations.

• Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments?

See above

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of assessment was used?

Student assessment: Students that have used the module are asked to complete an anonymous on-line survey that will allow me to track their participation while remaining blind to their responses.

It is anticipated that on-line quizzes will be employed in succeeding semesters as the bugs are worked out of the modules and health science professors in other schools and universities independently review the information presented.

One independent measure of success available to several of the health science disciplines (e.g., dentistry, medicine, physical therapy) is the profession-sponsored National Board exams. The first part of the Medical and Dental National Boards covers biomedical sciences presented in the first two years of each curricula. While these modules blend information that is examined on the Boards in separate tests, the overall improvement in student scores would be an indication of success.

• How did your approach obtain measures of performance?

See above

• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

Still in the process of measuring!

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?

In June, 2000, I offered ten half-day workshops for faculty and staff at the IU School of Dentistry. These workshops covered: Web Page Development Using Microsoft's Front Page Program; Scanning Images and Documents; and Working with Images. Twenty-seven Faculty and Staff signed up for these sessions.

• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?

Many of the participants were unaware of the power they had in their computers! Since these inaugural training sessions, the Dental School's Office of Computer Support has been providing tutorial sessions for faculty. Many of the teaching faculty at IUSD have developed simple Web pages or modified their Oncourse pages to serve the courses they teach. While many of these Web pages provide static information and lecture notes, this is an important first step to encouraging them to continue development of Web-based course material. The Dental School has sustained the effort to support faculty in their technology development.

• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?

I have found that it may take hours to learn or understand a certain program application. However, the person I teach learns the same application in a matter of seconds! For others either within IUSD or IU in general, I have been available to assist those with a question. For those planning to convert a portion of their didactic material to Web-based delivery, I can assist directly by explaining what I did, where I hit impediments to my progress and what I found helpful in achieving my goals. The added IT and Web-based support provided by the Office of Computer Support has helped tremendously in providing more detailed support of faculty and their projects.

• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?

Yes, the approach used in my modular development essentially slices up the bulk of material to present it in palatable amounts that don't cause eye strain or dis-interest. A key element in making Web based material useful is to challenge the reader to think. All disciplines can relate real-life scenarios to put the material in meaningful context. At the very least there could be a question or two added at the end of a case scenario that requires the students to copy them into an e-mail message to the professor for assessment.

• What tips would you offer?

This is a broad question. From a development perspective, I found mapping out the Web site and potential links on paper extremely helpful. In this way you can complete a logical path and then return to the home page to lead off in another direction. Composing on the computer without proper preparation will lead to wasted effort and an ill-conceived Web site.

The next challenge once the prototype is developed is to get the students to use it. Initially, I gave students a few percentage points at the end of the semester if they completed a simple module evaluation at the end of each module in the semester (4-6 modules depending on the semester). Once you are confident enough bugs have been worked out of the program, it is time to increase the stakes. You can simply add a quiz that covers the Web-based material and assign points, percentage or a grade to completion of the quiz. Alternatively, or in conjunction with the quiz, you can develop a new case scenario based on your Web material that will require the students to apply their Web-derived knowledge and insights.

Lastly, or it could logically be the first tip, consult with the Center for Teaching and Learning to discover that there are others that are working on similar development or learn of new programs that may better assist you in achieving you goals.

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?

Yes. I think the biggest contribution I made with the project was "jump-starting" some faculty in understanding they too could develop web pages relatively effortlessly. The continuation and expansion of this training, refreshing and support provided by the Office of Computer Support and the Dental School is to be commended for their foresight.

In terms of the project itself, yes, that too has been effective. While it has yet to be fully implemented, many elements of the development have been used and improved in each module and course I taught since 1998. While not the best indicator of student learning, the number of Dental students passing the Anatomical Sciences Section of the American Dental Association's Dental National Boards has i4 May, 2007g., for the July 2001 Dental National Board Exam, IUSD students ranked in the upper quintile in the Anatomical Sciences). The multifaceted nature of this modular approach will require continued development and upgrading to help the students reach their full potential in understanding the material in the shortest period of time. I look forward to the challenges and rewards of this development and upgrading.

• What, if anything,would you do differently?

In retrospect, the only difference I would undertake would be to offer, encourage and cajole faculty and staff earlier in my development efforts. Everyone brings a unique viewpoint and outcome to development of a web page and having discussions with peers early would have been more beneficial. I found it actually took more effort to nudge some faculty to use the technology and then I had to jump out of their way as they took off in new directions. Imagine if I had been able to stimulate them 6 or 12 months earlier!

• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)

The only unexpected outcome was the time commitment. Sometimes a relatively "simple" task took long to accomplish because of lack of familiarity with the program. Other times it just wasn't easy to stop the development and go home for dinner!

• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?

Yes. The initial investment of time while considerable, was well worth watching the students learn material, challenge each other, and achieve success when quizzed or examined.

• What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

As mentioned above, the only problem was time scheduling and this was accommodated by a family that patiently indulged me!

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